S14.E16: The Live Playoffs, Night 3

[Prin Holmes]

From TV Guide:

Quote

The remaining five artists from each of Team Kelly and Team Adam perform live for coaches Adam Levine, Alicia Keys, Kelly Clarkson, and Blake Shelton to secure a spot in the top twelve.  The top vote-getter for each team is revealed.  Adam, Alicia, Kelly, and Blake must each pick one artist from their own remaining four to take the final spot on their teams.

Discuss the one-hour third live episode here.

Edited April 18, 2018 by Prin Holmes

[Prin Holmes]

Current team rosters/cheat sheets:

Team Adam

Sharane Calister (saved by America's vote)

Rayshun LaMarr (saved by America's vote)

Jackie Verna (saved by Adam)

Team Alicia

Britton Buchanan (saved by America's vote)

Jackie Foster (saved by America's vote)

Christiana Danielle (saved by Alicia)

Team Kelly

Brynn Cartelli (saved by America's vote)

Kaleb Lee (saved by America's vote)

D.R. King (saved by Kelly)

Team Blake

Kyla Jade (saved by America's vote)

Pryor Baird (saved by America's vote)

Spensha Baker (saved by Blake)

This is our top twelve.

Edited April 19, 2018 by Prin Holmes

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Called Team Kelly on the money :-) Really, counting their overall body of work....Kaleb and D.R. were the right two to move forward though.

Team Adam was a total crapshoot however it played out. Rayshun's over-the-topness was enough to get what I'm assuming was a weird 5 way split twitter vote...and he went country with Jackie V. That goes against type for Adam, his track record would've made you think he would've gone Drew or Reid in that situation.

Team Blake

Damn. I really wished WILKES would've beat out Pryor in the fan vote or Spensha would've won the fan vote. I think the only scenario where Pryor got in and WILKES was eliminated was exactly what happened. Boo.

Team Alicia

Prin Holmes's twitter sleuthing was spot on for Jackie F. But I'm beyond stunned that Alicia went with Christiana over Terrence (and to a lesser degree, Kelsea). Did she just think Terrence was too much of a one trick pony at his keyboard? I said last night that I would've bet a small sum of money that he would've been her save (if necessary)....glad I didn't, cause I'd be broker than I am now lol.

[Prin Holmes]

2 hours ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

Did she just think Terrence was too much of a one trick pony at his keyboard? I said last night that I would've bet a small sum of money that he would've been her save (if necessary)....glad I didn't, cause I'd be broker than I am now lol.

I like to take some credit for that, as well as someone else on Idol Forums.  You see, last night, the latter sent her a tweet containing a link to Terrence's second Playoff performance, which displayed way more dislikes than likes, plus a warning that the public wasn't feeling him the way she was.  I think I helped put the nail in his coffin just this morning by sending her a link to Christiana's performance from last night, which had way more views and likes than Terrence's.  I simply told her the truth that Christiana was the one the fans wanted, not Terrence.

I guess she listened, after all, and let Terrence go.

Edited April 19, 2018 by Prin Holmes

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Interesting info...

[Prin Holmes]

2 minutes ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

Interesting info...

Yeah.  I guess it shows the coaches do listen to the fans, after all.  Sometimes.  At least if you're not Adam, who clearly showed he wasn't.

[Quickbeam]

I’ll miss Wilkes. Enjoyed his performances. 

[Diana Berry]

I think Adam looked a little shocked Rayshun got America's vote.  Guess it threw a wrench in his plans to have Jackie and the rocker guy.

[yorklee2]

Quote

Damn. I really wish WILKES would've beat out Pryor in the fan vote or Spensha would've won the fan vote. I think the only scenario where Pryor got in and WILKES was eliminated was exactly what happened. Boo.

I totally agree. I was shocked after last night's performance that WILKES didn't get through. Pryor does nothing for me. As others have said he has one speed and that gets tiring after awhile. I honestly think Blake looked a little disappointed that he got through and was counting on his final two being WILKES and Spensha.

There were a lot of surprises tonight. I also think Alicia and Adam were disappointed at who America put through. I couldn't believe Rayshun got the vote. IMO his was the worst performance tonight. I think Alicia was hoping for Christiana and Terrance as her final two.

Kelly's team was the only one I thought came out with the best selections. So maybe this will go better for her than I expected. Once again I think Adam has the weakest team.

[Diana Berry]

Looking at who can win?  My bet would be Brynn.  Spensha is lovely but she has seemed pretty shaky singing live.  Blake needs to work on her confidence.  Pryor will probably male top 3 because of Blake.

Agree that Adam has the weakest team.

[Prin Holmes]

Thoughts on tonight's performances:

Kaleb: Very solid performance.  I think that he has the best pure male country voice left.  It definitely helped that he did a current favorite song.  I think he could be Kelly's best shot at a win if she really wants to beat Blake with a country artist.

Alexa: Oh, no, Alexa.  This was not good.  Not good at all.  I'm sorry, but it really wasn't.  The start was pretty decent, but it turned into a mess as it went along.  Definitely not worthy of the vote.

D.R.: A very solid performance on his part.  Started out small, then built up to something much bigger.  His voice shown an incredible amount of power and control, as well.  Even his belting was well under control!  Probably one of my favorites of this team.  Could be a good contender for the public vote, or at least Kelly's save.

Dylan: I think he has a very nice, smooth, solid, clear tone.  But this song was definitely not for him.  It actually had some decent, brilliant spots when he was in his lower range and his mid-range.  It's when he got to his upper range that he lost me.  He might only have to rely on Kelly's save, but then again, he was really close to Kaleb in the retweets.

Tish: "At Last" has just been done to death on the show, and unfortunately, she couldn't offer up any interesting interpretation of it.  It was nonetheless a good performance, but not really a mind-blowing one.

Reid: I think he probably did the best job of Team Adam.  A very strong performance,  and when I definitely enjoyed. And that's something I rarely say about a contestant on Adam's team.  But he's probably Adam's strongest singer, so he should get the vote.

Jackie V.: It was a pleasant performance, but I couldn't get over how nasally her tone sounded throughout the entire thing.  Not to take away from it, of course, but I just thought that I would note it.

Drew: This was . . . just okay, to be honest.  I guess he picked an okay song for himself.  But he wasn't really all that interesting during it.  Kind of boring, really.  But he did well enough of the Twitter vote, so let's see if he has a chance.

Mia: When in doubt, go country.  That is, if you can handle the song.  Mia, simply put, couldn't.  Her lower notes were dynamite.  It's just when she started going up higher in her range that she seem to lose the song.  It ended up being pretty mediocre, especially compared to all of her past performances.  I don't think she'll make it.

Rayshun: Probably the absolute worst performance of the entire team.  That Mary J. Blige song is a gem, and it shouldn't be taken by voices like his.  And of course, he does a spin for performance purposes in hopes that he will get the vote.  Really hope he doesn't, because he shouldn't have gotten this far in the first place.  He only did because Adam loves him so much.

As for the results, I was shocked that Pryor still got the viewer vote.  WILKES was easily leading the Twitter vote last night.  But I guess I underestimated the app vote.  Blake was definitely trying to hide how pissed he was.  But based on his options, Spensha was probably the right choice for his save.  I knew that, by far, Gary and Austin were definitely out.  It was a choice between Pryor and WILKES, and once America made the choice for him, the latter had to go. I'm okay with that, because I really don't know what everybody here saw in WILKES, and I really want to know what it was right now.

Kelly's team was very unsurprising, in terms of the public vote.  By the way Twitter was going, I was pretty sure that Kaleb was getting it, and he did.  (Dylan was very close behind him, though.)  And I suppose that it made sense that Kelly chose D.R. based on overall body of work, but I really wanted her to choose Dylan.  Instead, I have to lose him and Tish.  Don't really care one way or another about Alexa, though.  I get the strangest feeling that Kelly should be prepared to lose D.R. either next week or the week after, though.

Alicia had a very tough choice on a very stacked team, but at least Twitter reflected the vote this time, what with Jackie F. getting the vote.  From there, I was pretty sure that Johnny was out of it, being the least-liked member of the team.  But I really thought she would take Terrence through.  She just loved him so much.  But based on how she was being received by America, Christiana was absolutely the right choice.  Sorry to see any of Johnny, Kelsea, or Terrence go, though, because I thought that they all deserved to be in the top twelve more than several other artists from any of the other three teams.

Finally, Adam's team.  The result of this one actually shocked me.  Reid was leading in the Twitter vote, so it shocked me when Rayshun got it instead.  You can tell it shocked Adam, too.  After that, I thought that either Drew or Reid was a shoo-in.  But alas for both of them, Adam chooses to keep his dream alive of beating Blake with a country artist and picks Jackie V. instead.  So goodbye to Drew, Reid, and Mia in one fell swoop.  Adam probably lost his three strongest members thanks to the new format.

So it lasts, the field has been cut in half, and our top twelve is decided.  Let's see what happens next week.

Good episode, if only for the complete crippling of Adam's team.

Edited April 20, 2018 by Prin Holmes

[Reddust]

I'm glad Alexa is gone, every time they said her name my Echo Dot responded. Lol

[Prin Holmes]

1 hour ago, Diana Berry said:

I think Adam looked a little shocked Rayshun got America's vote.  Guess it threw a wrench in his plans to have Jackie and the rocker guy.

Which rocker guy?

[vb68]

I'm just appalled that Pryor got through for ab libbing  9 to 5.  "Somthin' somethin' COME TO LIFE". Bleh

[yorklee2]

5 minutes ago, vb68 said:

I'm just appalled that Pryor got through for ab libbing  9 to 5.  "Somthin' somethin' COME TO LIFE". Bleh

Agree. I seriously wonder if he got through based on women who probably voted for him because of his looks. He's ok but nothing special. I can see why a certain demographic would go for him though.

I like Britton but I think he got through somewhat for the same reason. Young good looking kid. Reminds me of Noah Mac from last season except I think Britton has more talent. Has more than Pryor too so if he was even somewhat voted through based on looks it doesn't bother me. Pryor though?? Surely people don't find that raspy shouty voice that entertaining? Hence the reason I think a lot of women voted based on looks not talent.

[peachmangosteen]

8 hours ago, yorklee2 said:

Surely people don't find that raspy shouty voice that entertaining?

I mean I do so yea I think people do.

Pryor was literally the only person I really enjoyed that got through last night, but I would've thrown him overboard for Wilkes. I like Chritiana OK, too, I guess.

This is honestly the worst Top 12 ever for me. I feel like maybe it will finally break me of the habit of watching lol.

[Babalooie]

Music teacher here.  Sad to say, but I am enjoying Idol more than The Voice this year.  None of the contestants stand out for me.

[vast wasteland]

So tired of singers who cannot seem to enunciate the word to the songs, DR I'm looking at you. 

(OT) Also you, Ariana Grande, the queen of the mumble.

Listening to the judges responses,  every one of these contestants is a STAH.  I would love it just one time if one of the contestants said something like, "I appreciate your praise, but could you please tell me how you think I can improve."  Or maybe that is only appropriate in the rehearsals.

Ha ha ha, same here for the Sonos speaker response to Alexa's name.

Edited April 19, 2018 by vast wasteland

[RedbirdNelly]

I was so disappointed Pryor got through. He was my least favorite.

[Dodginblue]

1 hour ago, RedbirdNelly said:

I was so disappointed Pryor got through. He was my least favorite.

I liked Pryor's blind audition but since then not so much.  He sings in such a tense, wound up manner that I wonder if he's really nervous, which you wouldn't think he'd be since he's been performing live for awhile.  And the song choices haven't helped.  9 to 5, really?  That's a song that has to be sung in kind of a light-hearted way and he sounded like he was being tortured.    

I'm not disappointed that he made it through because I keep hoping that what I thought originally, here's someone with talent who would be entertaining to hear and watch, that may still be true.  He's only got one more shot to convince me of that though.

[Sharpie66]

4 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

This is honestly the worst Top 12 ever for me. I feel like maybe it will finally break me of the habit of watching lol.

I am seriously considering deleting my series recording from my DVR. Nobody is grabbing me this season at all. I really liked Terrence, but now that he is gone—meh.

[Tony Williams]

I'm Going Down is a Rose Royce  single . It is from the film Car Wash and on the film's soundtrack. 

Mary J did a good job, but it is not her song.

[Lily H]

Can't stand Pryor, really thought Reid was going to go through, was stunned when Adam picked Jackie V. but glad he didn't go with Mia, and I think D.R. is possibly my favourite at the moment, but only because I can't remember any of the performances from Monday.

I hate this new format. It's so rushed. They need to come up with something better next time.

Edited April 19, 2018 by Lily H
additional thought

[thesupremediva1]

Jackie V. was a shouty mess and she cracked like a china vase on the high note. That's who Adam picked? They stood up for that?

Anyone I enjoyed was eliminated tonight. Sorry, American Idol's teenagers have more talent than what was picked to go through tonight, and especially by the coaches. No WILKES? No Dylan? No Reid? No Mia? Ok then. I'm out for the season. There's not one person left I need to hear sing again. 

[viajero]

Add me to those who think this is the weakest Top 12 in the history of this show.  I'm not just saying this because I'm bitter than we lost the likes of Wilkes, Kelsea and Terrence.  Even with those three, it would still be the weakest.  Part of the problem is that all of Team Alicia's contestants were better than many who got through on the other teams.  I certainly can't remember Team Blake ever being this unimpressive.  Maybe we'll finally see and end to his streak of always having at least one finalist.

As for the performances on this final night of the playoffs, very surprisingly my favorite was Jackie Verna.  I'm not a country fan and going into the evening, I was pulling for Mia and Reid on Team Adam.  But I thought Jackie out-sang them both.  She's very much on an upward trajectory, improving from week to week.  I would now rate her easily the best of the remaining country singers.

I'm not surprised that Jackie F got the vote on Team Alicia as she's another contestant who has been steadily improving.  Most importantly, she was among the only contestants who was very good on both performances this week.  If she keeps this up, she has a chance of making the finals.

I have no idea how Pryor got America's vote.  He's the opposite of the two Jackies in that he's been on a steady downward trajectory since the blinds.  The only reason I can see for Kaleb getting the vote is that the rest of his team was also pretty bad.  Still, I would have voted for D.R. 

I never liked the format of American Idol and I don't particularly like their current judges, but even I have to admit that they have much more interesting contestants heading into the live shows this season.

[SunnyBeBe]

Do you think the voting signals for Pryor got mixed up?  Him getting America's vote really shocked me.  Maybe, it's just a personal thing, but, I just don't get it.  I'm fine with the others who went through.  I have a couple of favorites, but, am not wild about anyone at this point.  I find that I have to try to make myself watch this season.  lol  And I normally can't get all the way through. I have to resort to checking out the performances the next day online. 

[Jal]

18 hours ago, yorklee2 said:

Agree. I seriously wonder if he got through based on women who probably voted for him because of his looks. He's ok but nothing special. I can see why a certain demographic would go for him though.

I like Britton but I think he got through somewhat for the same reason. Young good looking kid. Reminds me of Noah Mac from last season except I think Britton has more talent. Has more than Pryor too so if he was even somewhat voted through based on looks it doesn't bother me. Pryor though?? Surely people don't find that raspy shouty voice that entertaining? Hence the reason I think a lot of women voted based on looks not talent.

His looks? He's alright but if I were voting based on looks it would've gone to Dylan. Or one of the women. Unless you're talking about a specific demographic of women. But even then I doubt that was the case here. A lot of people loved Pryor in the beginning. I don't get it.

Team Alicia was better than all the other teams put together. Too bad they had to eliminate contestants this way.

[Gel]

That was a whole lot of angsty screaming. It’s almost as if they got coached to emote on one setting: pain. 

Question for those who know, were a lot of these guys flat, pitch-wise? They sounded off. So many of them sounded off that I started to wonder if it was a sound check equipment issue, or not being accustomed to the stage, or something systemic. All efforts to make the song “their own” was not helping, either. 

[Sugar]

37 minutes ago, Gel said:

That was a whole lot of angsty screaming. It’s almost as if they got coached to emote on one setting: pain. 

Question for those who know, were a lot of these guys flat, pitch-wise? They sounded off. So many of them sounded off that I started to wonder if it was a sound check equipment issue, or not being accustomed to the stage, or something systemic. All efforts to make the song “their own” was not helping, either. 

YES. There were a lot of pitch problems. Almost every single singer had one (or more) during their performance. When Reid sang, I was so relieved to finally have a singer hitting the right notes. I would rather a singer have a smaller voice or performance and hit every note, than to belt and spazz and be flat. Don't go for the note if you can't reach it! I think when they get too "emotional", they lose their vocal footing. Unfortunately, the coaches praise the overwrought, writhing spasms that so many singers do now. 

Actually, I don't mind Rayshun's exuberance, because it fits his story. The guy almost DIED. He got a second chance at life, and it looks like he can barely contain the joy he has - like it's just bursting out of him. I, for one, find him delightful to watch. You go 'head and spread your happiness, Rayshun. I love his voice too. 

Agree that it's a weak season overall. Pryor was a favorite, but he's a one-way monkey. Would love to hear him do a slow jam - with dynamics, to see if he has the chops. I still like Briton a lot, and my hope for him is that he doesn't go too old-fashioned and throwback. Would love to hear him do an interpretation of Springsteen's "I'm on Fire". 

Jackie from Team Alicia is the absolute worst. "I'm such a rock chick, look how hard I rock - with my mom blazer and Instagram bob haircut". She has a decent voice (when she's on key), but it's not a rock voice. Just like Spensha has a nice voice, but it's not suited to country.And perhaps the most offensive, Dylan. Dude says he's a folk, singer-songwriter artist and then performs Tom Petty like he's a long lost Backstreet Boy. That was offensive. I mean, did he really lift up his shirt to show us his stomach?! How very Bon Iver of him!
 I mean, I love soul and blues, but I sound like Taylor Swift. Therefore, I sing mostly poppy indie shit when I do karaoke - and not BB King, because it sounds like shit. I wish people were more self-aware.

 

Edited April 20, 2018 by Sugar

[Sugar]

23 hours ago, Prin Holmes said:

I like to take some credit for that, as well as someone else on Idol Forums.  You see, last night, the latter sent her a tweet containing a link to Terrence's second Playoff performance, which displayed way more dislikes than likes, plus a warning that the public wasn't feeling him the way she was.  I think I helped put the nail in his coffin just this morning by sending her a link to Christiana's performance from last night, which had way more views and likes than Terrence's.  I simply told her the truth that Christiana was the one the fans wanted, not Terrence.

I guess she listened, after all, and let Terrence go.

....and you think 

1) Alicia reads all the tweets she gets
2) She cares about the tweets she gets
3) She then refers to them to decide which of her team to keep?

K.

Maybe you can use your special influence to get rid of The Save and Live Voting?

[Prin Holmes]

4 minutes ago, Sugar said:

....and you think 

1) Alicia reads all the tweets she gets
2) She cares about the tweets she gets
3) She then refers to them to decide which of her team to keep?

K.

It worked, didn't it?

Seriously, though.  She had been all about Terrence and hadn't even thought about dumping him until last night.  I think even TPTB were all for him. There's nothing else I can possibly think could have influenced her to drop him other than fan feedback.

[yorklee2]

5 hours ago, Jal said:

His looks? He's alright but if I were voting based on looks it would've gone to Dylan. Or one of the women. Unless you're talking about a specific demographic of women. But even then I doubt that was the case here. A lot of people loved Pryor in the beginning. I don't get it.

Team Alicia was better than all the other teams put together. Too bad they had to eliminate contestants this way.

I read somewhere that women compared to men tend to be the larger voting group on these singing competitions. I don't know who the target demographic is of the show but I recall also reading that for years on AI women from like 20's to 40's was their biggest voting block. And that's partly why for a long stretch they had only men winning and the producers were desperate for a woman to win again. 

I think Pryor would be very appealing to the 30 to 50ish range of women. And it seems like there's something about guys with guitars. We had David Cook, Lee Dewyze, Philip Phillips on AI and now Pryor, Britton who made it through on their respective teams and happen to play guitars. It could be nothing like that but I agree with others that he started out strong but became worse with each performance. We on the boards couldn't be the only ones who think that so it was really surprising to me when he was voted through. My first thought was, "there's got to be women voting for him who think his raspy voice and guitar are hot". If course that's just my opinion.

Edited April 20, 2018 by yorklee2

[Dodginblue]

3 hours ago, Prin Holmes said:

It worked, didn't it?

Seriously, though.  She had been all about Terrence and hadn't even thought about dumping him until last night.  I think even TPTB were all for him. There's nothing else I can possibly think could have influenced her to drop him other than fan feedback.

I agree.   I was still mumbling to myself, she's going to pick Terrence for a minute AFTER she picked someone else, I just couldn't get my mind around it.  That's one of the things I don't really like about this show, how the judges will hype a particular contestant, and then it's see ya.  Which obviously only one person is going to win, they're going to be saying good-bye sooner or later to all but one, so it doesn't really matter but I still find the over-the-top gushing kind of phony.  

[mamadrama]

5 hours ago, Prin Holmes said:

It worked, didn't it?

Seriously, though.  She had been all about Terrence and hadn't even thought about dumping him until last night.  I think even TPTB were all for him. There's nothing else I can possibly think could have influenced her to drop him other than fan feedback.

Or she was going to do it all along anyway and she didn't show it, or she has personal friends/assistants/etc, that she discusses these things with and THEY influenced her, or she looked at the other teams and who they may have moving forward and decided that Terrance wouldn't do so well up against them...

[mamadrama]

I was so disappointed with these performances. They all had bad moments and half of them went flat more than once (some seemed to enjoy it so much that they just stayed). 

 

Kaleb- I'm not into current country songs (there are very few radio-country singers that I like; most of my current favorites are indies who don't get airplay). While I think he did as well as he could with the material, I was underwhelmed. Thomas Rhett does nothing for me. In fact, I think him (and the people like him) and his kinds of songs are kind of one of the problems in the genre right now. Country music means a lot to me; I am hella opinionated about it. 

Alexa “Stop and Stare” by OneRepublic- Yikes! What the hell happened here? My son had to leave the room from secondhand embarrassment. I actually like Alex. This was all over the place and she canNOT hit her major notes or make them stick. 

DR-“All On My Mind” by Anderson East- Yay! Some East Nashville music! I respect anyone who looks beyond country mainstream for inspiration. I've been middle of the road about him all along. I haven't disliked him but I haven't loved him, either. Thought his performance was a good one, though. Maybe one of the best of the night.  

Dylan “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers- Who? Seriously, I almost never remember what he sang. He leaves no impression on me. I had to look him up to remind myself of what he sung and once I saw the song I remembered my original impression: not good. Also, dude needs to calm down on the crowd pandering. 

Tish “At Last” by Etta James- It was just okay. She has a nice voice, though she's one of the ones who went flat a few times, but there was nothing great about this performance that sets it apart from the hundreds of others I've heard. I felt like it was a safe, boring choice. 

Reid “Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)” by The Hollies- I liked his voice tonight. He's another one that doesn't stand out to me very much but this time he was one of the few that I don't have any major complaints about, so there's that. I did like his range. 

Jackie V Jackie Verna – “Once” by Maren Morris.- So a few seconds into the song my husband came in, startled, and then turned and left. I will never forget that look on his face. I did NOT think this was good. So, so flat in so many places. I don't get Adam's love for her. She's had a few "okay" moments for me throughout the competition but I really don't get the accolades. Besides, Maren's songs take a lot of power and you pretty much have to stay at full decibel when you're singing them. Jackie doesn't have that kind of voice. If she stuck with things that fit her range and abilities, she'd sound MUCH better.  

Drew “Wild Horses” by The Rolling Stones- I must be the only one who thought this was the best performance of the night. It was slow and soft and there wasn't anything spectacular about it but I didn't cringe one single time. It was the only performance that my entire family could agree on. 

Mia “Either Way” by Chris Stapleton- Oh. Oh Mia. What happened? Did she completely run out of steam? I was rooting for her. I loved her style. I feel like, in this song anyway, that she was REALLY struggling. And it showed. Too bad-she's still one of my favorites but that was not good. 

Rayshun “I’m Going Down” by Rose Royce- I didn't care for the vocals at all but I thought the performance was a fun one. I liked watching him, though I wouldn't buy this single (or even listen to it again). I am still shocked as hell that he got fan vote. 

 

Re: the Pryor comments. I like his voice. I enjoy his voice more than any other contestant's and he's one of the few that I'd go out and watch live. However, I agree that he messed up the Dolly song the night before (and you just don't do that-you ALWAYS take Dolly's music seriously) and he DOES seem to be a one-way monkey. When he first auditioned I couldn't believe that he wasn't already famous: his voice was great, he had good stage presence, etc. As the competition goes on, however, its becoming more apparent to me as to WHY he isn't already famous. He has no range. Every song sounds completely the same. With that being said, I still like his voice. 

[healthnut]

This is the first season I’ve watched. What was the previous format?

[Jal]

14 hours ago, Prin Holmes said:

It worked, didn't it?

Seriously, though.  She had been all about Terrence and hadn't even thought about dumping him until last night.  I think even TPTB were all for him. There's nothing else I can possibly think could have influenced her to drop him other than fan feedback.

I doubt one or two people on Twitter had any influence over her choice. What's more likely is that she looked at all the stats herself or asked people she trusted and figured it out. Also, it's entirely possible that she believes Christiana is more special AND more popular than Terrence and voted that way. Alicia is somewhat strategic in her decisions.

[SunnyBeBe]

I can see why Alicia picked Christianna over Terrence.  While I haven't been wild over Christianna's last couple of performances, at least, you're not sure what to expect.  Apparently, she'll try anything.  And she really gets into the song. With Terrence,al though, he's talented and very nice, his performances just didn't engage me.  After the Blind audition, it was just too same old, same old for me.  I just didn't look forward to seeing what was next.  I suppose that with Christianna, it could be a dynamic impressive outcome or not so much.  

I liked Drew doing Wild Horses, but, I disagreed with Adam about it being a good arrangement.  

Jackie V.  I don't understand that choice at all.  

D.R. King....I guess I get it. He's good.  Nothing that stands out to me though. 

Rayshun.  I was losing interest, but, I thought his last performance was really impressive.  He poured his heart out and it showed.    

[Rum Punch]

Not to come off like a conspiracy theorist,  but has anyone else noticed that when they go from the prerecorded shows to the live shows, the vocal performances of the contestants show a very noticeable drop off in quality?  Not just this season, but every season I have watched.  I mean, in the Battles they are practically flawless, but on the live shows not so much.  It makes me wonder if they are doing a little pitch correction on the shows where only the coaches will be picking the people who advance, figuring, hey, let's get a little buzz going about how great these singers are, and no harm done, because no one is voting.  Once the public gets involved however, there might be some legal issues if they were messing with the performances.

[viajero]

1 hour ago, Rum Punch said:

Not to come off like a conspiracy theorist,  but has anyone else noticed that when they go from the prerecorded shows to the live shows, the vocal performances of the contestants show a very noticeable drop off in quality?  Not just this season, but every season I have watched.  I mean, in the Battles they are practically flawless, but on the live shows not so much.  It makes me wonder if they are doing a little pitch correction on the shows where only the coaches will be picking the people who advance, figuring, hey, let's get a little buzz going about how great these singers are, and no harm done, because no one is voting.  Once the public gets involved however, there might be some legal issues if they were messing with the performances.

Part of the reason could be that for the taped shows, the contestants have several weeks to prepare each performance.  Once they get to the live shows, they only have a week.

[Prin Holmes]

On 4/20/2018 at 4:27 AM, healthnut said:

This is the first season I’ve watched. What was the previous format?

For several seasons, they would have two teams perform over the entire two-hour block on Monday, and then the other two teams performed during the next two-hour block on Tuesday.  Then, in a one-hour episode on Wednesday, the results would be revealed, complete with team performances.

But since season eleven, they have completely screwed with the format.  Last season, it was not to disrupt NBC's precious This is Us.  This season, it was to push Rise on the audience.

[healthnut]

Thank you @Prin Holmes

[jhlipton]

I find it interesting that last season there were 3 or 4 "Well, duh, they're continuing on".  The folks here may have differed on which of those three or four they liked best, but there were strong contenders, with iTunes sales to back it up.  I'm not watching this season (I don't care for Kelly Clarkson and all the gimmicks turned me off) this season, but it doesn't seem like that's the case.

On 4/18/2018 at 9:59 PM, yorklee2 said:

Agree. I seriously wonder if he got through based on women who probably voted for him because of his looks.

That's the major reason I've never liked the Live voting -- it becomes about the looks and not about The Voice.

[Diana Berry]

On 4/18/2018 at 8:24 PM, Prin Holmes said:

Which rocker guy?

The guy with the longish hair with the guitar

[SnarkyTart]

Checking in to see if I was in a minority of The Voice fans who find this season underwhelming, and that's putting it kindly.  I just took it off my season passes.  I will miss it, but not enough to watch any of these contestants sing again.

[Prin Holmes]

12 hours ago, Diana Berry said:

The guy with the longish hair with the guitar

Oh.  Then you meant WILKES.

[Vanessa1214]

WILKES was on Blake's team. I think she meant Drew on Adam's team. 

[bluepiano]

On ‎4‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 5:45 PM, Prin Holmes said:

Seriously, though.  She had been all about Terrence and hadn't even thought about dumping him until last night.  I think even TPTB were all for him. There's nothing else I can possibly think could have influenced her to drop him other than fan feedback.

There's no doubt that Alicia really liked Terrence and respected him as a musician, but from the very beginning I saw that she had a special connection with Christiana. Something about Christiana touches her on a deep emotional level. Maybe that she had never sung in public outside of church music, which Alicia has brought up several times. And as another woman she feels an affinity she does not feel with Terrence. So I fully expected her to choose Christiana and was not surprised in the least.

 

On ‎4‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 4:55 PM, Gel said:

That was a whole lot of angsty screaming. It’s almost as if they got coached to emote on one setting: pain. . 

You hit the nail right on the head. This show has always had a lot of that, but this season is the worst. What ever happened to the idea that music can be fun, and communicate joy and exuberance? It's as if now the only way to show that you're an "artist" is to contort your face and body in pain and screech like a banshee. That, and mangle words so that you almost need subtitles to understand the lyrics. I always DVR "The Voice," and this season there haven't been more than a handful of performances I watched all the way through, because at some point I couldn't take the over-the-top emoting.

Edited April 23, 2018 by bluepiano